Isogloss
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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Isogloss
in linguistic geography, a line on a map designating the distributional boundaries of a given linguistic phenomenon (phonetic, morphological, syntactic, lexical). For example, an isoglossal line can be drawn showing the distribution of the word gomonit’ (“to din”) in the meaning of govorit’ (“to talk”) in the southwestern regions of the RSFSR, and for the Indo-Iranian languages it is possible, with the aid of an isogloss, to mark the areas that use enclitic pronouns in a subjective, objective, or attributive function. Along with the general term “isogloss” there are also specific terms such as isophone (an isogloss showing the distribution of a sound) and isosyntagm (an isogloss showing the distribution of a syntactic phenomenon).
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.